Be it today, tomorrow or Tuesday, the Detroit Tigers are going to make the playoffs for a third year in a row.
Going into Saturday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox, Detroit’s magic number to clinch its third straight American League Central Division crown was reduced to three. Any combination of wins for the Tigers and losses for the Cleveland Indians adding up to three and the marathon run to the playoffs is over. With seven games left to play against three teams with sub .500 records for Detroit (Chicago, Minnesota and Miami), it’s safe to say the Tigers will do their part to get to three.
That being said, it’s time to think about what manager Jim Leyland should do with the best starting pitching rotation in Major League Baseball.
Detroit will have four days off after the regular season ends a week from today in Miami before the playoffs begin on Friday, Oct. 4. The likely opponent is the Oakland Athletics. No matter who pitches between now and the end of the regular season, there is plenty of time off between before the start of the playoffs for Leyland to set the starting rotation however he sees fit.
So, what would you do if you were wearing the skipper’s hat?
Who do you give the ball to in Game 1? Who gets the call in Game 2? Do you go with a three or four-man rotation? Who is the odd man or men out of the rotation?
Let’s face it, Justin Verlander has been the ace of Detroit’s staff for years. Who can forget his complete game win over the Oakland Athletics in the fifth and deciding game of last year’s division playoff series. Dominant!
However, Verlander is 13-12 with a 3.66 earned run average in 2013. Do you think Leyland should put the ball and the team’s fate in his hands should there be another deciding fifth game with the Athletics this year?
Max Scherzer (20-3, 3.00 ERA) is the favorite to win this year’s Cy Young Award as the American League’s best pitcher, but Scherzer doesn’t have Verlander’s track record. Scherzer has also benefited from above average run support on days he pitches. Has Scherzer earned your trust to be the go-to guy in games one and four or five?
What about Anibal Sanchez? The fact Sanchez has the lowest ERA in the American League with a 14-7 record puts him in the conversation with Scherzer and Verlander as the possible starter in the opening game of the playoffs.
Then there’s Doug Fister (13-9, 3.71 ERA) and Rick Porcello (13-8, 4.45). One or both of them will be moved to the bullpen. Before you point to Porcello as the odd man out, make note of the fact Porcello is 5-2 in his last seven decisions.
If it was up to me -- which, fortunately, it is not -- Scherzer has earned the right with his 20-win season to get the nod in Game 1. Verlander would pitch the second game, based solely on reputation and the size of his salary, with Sanchez going in Game 3.
What would you do? Remember, there are no wrong answers here. Every other manager entering the playoffs would love to have the tough choices facing Leyland.
Detroit has the starting pitching to go a long way. Scherzer, Verlander, Sanchez, Fister and Porcello have carried the Tigers. Moving Fister and/or Porcello to the pen makes them even tougher in the seventh and eighth inning.
Each week, The Oakland Press encourages readers to sound off about topics in the sports section. Send your thoughts and opinions to sports editor Jeff Kuehn via email at jeff.kuehn@oakpress.com. Be sure to include your name, hometown and phone number for verification purposes.
Fodder to consider this week includes:
-- Jhonny Peralta’s 50-game suspension for steroid use ends after Monday’s game in Minnesota. Should the Tigers welcome Peralta back with open arms? He has served the penalty imposed by Major League Baseball, but is that enough? What message will the Tigers be sending to young players if they bring Peralta back? Will his return upset team chemistry or be just what the doctor ordered to bolster the lineup?
-- The Lions are in Washington today -- a place the Lions have never come away with a win in 21 previous tries. Washington is 0-2 coming into today’s game. Win or lose, your reaction after the game is always welcome here.
-- Ohio State rolls up 55 points on Florida Atlantic in the first half of Saturday’s game in Columbus. High school football has a mercy rule of a running clock once a team gets ahead by 35 points. In the name of player safety and common sense, college football should think about a similar rule.
Feedback received recently follows:Big brother got busted
I find it humorous regarding the fly over at Spartan Stadium last Saturday by a sky writing plane scripting, “Go Blue,” just prior to Michigan State’s game against Youngstown State.
When Michigan assistant sports information director Dave Ablauf was contacted about the incident, he denied the plane was specifically instructed to fly over Lansing and said the company, OregonAero Sky Dancer, “didn’t target locations.”
However, when the owner of OregonAero, Suzanne Asbury-Oliver, was contacted, she blew the whistle that she was instructed to fly over Lansing, not specifically East Lansing, but read between the lines.
After that, the Michigan athletic department owned up to instructing Ms. Asbury-Oliver to script, “Go Blue” over Lansing close enough to East Lansing that it was clearly visible from the MSU campus. Why would the Ablauf lie about the incident initially? Maybe the Spartans are a lot more significant in the insecure mindset in Ann Arbor than the Wolverines want to acknowledge or admit. Mark Hollis, Michigan State’s athletic director, handled it beautifully when he said: “This is just another whimsical episode in a great rivalry.”
I only hope that Spartan nation does not stoop to the level of flying “Go Green, Go White” over one of the upcoming Michigan games and portray us as insecure as they are in Ann Arbor.
Richard L. Brower
West BloomfieldShould college athletes get paid?
The issue of paying college scholarship student/athletes is hotter than ever with the recent flare up caused by Texas A&M quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy holder Johnny Manziel's being disciplined for being paid for signing autographs.
As the parent of a former D1 hockey player at Lake Superior State, I can tell you that my son spent four years answering to two bosses. Both his hockey coach and his academic adviser thought they were owed 100 percent of my son's time. When the dust finally settled, I was very proud that my son earned a degree in criminal justice he will value the rest of his life. However, if a student/athlete is accepting a scholarship as a stepping stone to the pros and is coming from a poor family from the inner city, I can understand the need for additional money to cover things we took or granted.
One possible solution has been to allow a stipend to cover such expenses. I would prefer to have the player negotiate a loan from the athletic department that would immediately be repaid from any signing bonus or contract that student/athlete would get after leaving school. I'm old school and strongly believe in amateur status. For example, I don't endorse NHL players playing in the Olympics. To me, that violates the amateur principle of the Olympic games.
Obviously, something needs to be done. It isn't right for college coaches to have lucrative shoe contracts and schools to collect millions from TV contracts and giving student/athletes nothing. All that does is drive providing cash to kids under the table. I expect that the NCAA will propose a remedy soon and get everything above board.
Bob Frick
Auburn Hills